E-Waste Concerns

In September 2012, digital television will be rolled out across the country.  On Monday night, TV3 News looked at what the changeover will mean for the current hundreds of thousands of televisions not compatible with the impending network.  While some televisions can gain compatibility through the connection of a Free View box, many people will opt for a TV upgrade and throw out their old sets posing issues on how, and where to properly dispose of them. Watch the Video.

Jon Thornhill of RCN, stated that while there are current collection points where televisions can be disposed of correctly, there is a fee for doing so. The fee, Russell Norman from the Green party stated, is reflective of current sole responsibility on the consumer, suggesting that in order to have effective sustainable e-waste disposal, producer responsibility must be enforced.

Something that SIFT whole heartedly agrees with.

Les Mees Solar Farm France Source: The Guardian (Boris Horvat/AFP/Getty Images)

This is the first list of Friday Favourites for June – lots of interesting links to peruse over Queen’s Birthday weekend:

• Ten places to visit before they vanish with global warming.
• Fishermen being paid to “catch” plastic.
• Re-imagining recycled materials.
• Beautiful fields of…solar farms in france. This could work here.
• The Colours of Rubbish – beautiful or not?
• The new Nissan Leaf Ad – would you buy one?
• Carbon Dioxide Emissions for 2010 increased – worrying for tackling climate change – we need to do more, now.
• More on Carbon emissions here from the Guardian.
• New solution for dealing with organic waste – project funded by the Ministry for the Environment.
• New types of planters – ideas for Spring.

SIFT Photo

What is it? Hazardous waste is any waste that presents an immediate or future, physical, chemical or biological threat to humans and/or the environment. In New Zealand, hazardous waste is the product of households, as well as commercial activities, industries and healthcare. The types of hazardous waste vary; they can be waste material that may contaminate or release into the atmosphere through combustion e.g, dioxins.

How is it managed in New Zealand? Hazardous waste can be treated in several ways:
•    Chemically: Waste can be neutralised, undergo oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis and precipitation
•    Physically: Waste can be encapsulated and/or separated
•    Biologically: Through the use of microorganisms
•    Thermally: Waste can be treated through controlled incineration

New Zealand manages the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste through a mix of legislation and regulation, strategy and guideline policies and non-regulatory methods (such as best practice guidelines and public awareness). Though the Resource Management Act 1991 does not directly address hazardous waste management, it is the RMA that grants resource consents and the conditions on the types of hazardous waste that can go to landfill and the designs of the landfill itself to minimise risk.

Information sources:

http://www.oag.govt.nz/central-govt/2005-06/part11

http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/national-definition-tech-paper-oct99.pdf

http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/environment/14B.pdf

Source: Re-Nest via Just a Girl

Here are this week’s favourite links from around the world:

• From glass jar to travel mug! Plastic free living from Re-Nest – make it yourself.
• Ever wondered how to responsibly dispose of batteries?
• Sustainable computer hardware  – awesome felt mouse.
• Reinventing the wheel with this great rug.
• A step forward for New Zealand’s environmental management – the EPA
• A giggle on the subject of climate change
• Toilet Paper Tube Wall Art (see photo above).

Have a great waste free weekend. Remember every little habitual change helps.

A Takeaway Container You Can Eat and the Individually Wrapped Prune

The 2011 Unpackit Packaging Awards recently took place. Wanaka Wastebusters ran the awards as part of the Unpackit Demystifying Packaging Choices project and with over 100 product nominations and near to 9,000 votes, the winners of the best and worst packaging were recently announced.

The Best Award went to the Potato Pak. Made in New Zealand the takeaway containers made from potato starch waste from potato chip production. They can be composted, fed to birds, pigs or fish and even eaten by humans!

Runners up for the Best Award went to the Speights swap-a-crates, promoting reuse and recycling of used beer bottles and the humble egg carton – reusable, recyclable and made from recycled paper.

The Worst Award went to the ridiculous Sunsweet Ones – individually wrapped prunes, each prune providing waste for landfill.

Runners up for poor producer packaging responsibility went to were Brother Ink Cartridges for excessive, non-recyclable packaging and Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate which comes in a ‘tin’ made from foil and cardboard destined for landfill.

The awards highlighted that even the best packaging does not have to be presented with glitz and glam and reflected customers’ awareness of good and bad packaging in relation to how wasteful it is.

Treated Timber Source: Lockwood.co.nz

New Zealand’s forestry industry contributes 12% of the country’s annual export earnings, making it New Zealand’s third largest industry. Within this powerful industry, there is the manufacturing of CCA treated timber. In 2005 4,215, 000 cubic metres of rough sawn timber was produced within New Zealand. We found a great report on Extended Producer Responsibility within the Timber Industry by Simon Love (2007) which is a great resource for information on Treated Timber and finding a solution and states that estimates for 2006 show that the amount of treated timber within that timber production total is 830,250 cubic metres.

Data from the Ministry for the Environment from their waste composition analysis from 2008 statistics states that for the whole country Timber makes up 11% of the total waste to landfill. An estimated 3.156 million tonnes of waste went to landfill in 2006 so that’s 347,160 tonnes of timber waste. More here.

A certain percentage of this timber to landfill is CCA Treated Timber which is an issue for all landfills and the surrounding environment.

Radiata pine is one of the world’s most widely planted plantation species and has the ability to grow to a large diameter faster than almost any other tree species. In New Zealand, both the ideal climatic and soil conditions exist for advanced radiata pine plantations, making pine New Zealand’s number one commercially grown tree species and is used for external building structures, including fences, decks, landscaping, pole houses, playground structures, marinas and walkways. However, due to a natural susceptibility to fungal decay, radiata pine must be extensively chemically treated in order for it to withstand the outdoor exposures.

Internationally, CCA treated timber has been banned or had restrictions placed on it due to the growing concern over its possible health implications for humans, and the environmental implications that can result from the chemicals leaching during landfill.

In 1997, The Department of Conservation commissioned a report on CCA treated timber within New Zealand. Written by Dr. Michael Hedley, the report explored the possible future disposal of treated timber, including controlled incineration and fully encapsulated landfill disposal. Dr. Hedley stated in the report that  ‘Though these may be possibilities…while there has been little significant evidence produced within New Zealand on the effects of CCA timber landfill disposal, municipal landfills, will continue to be the most viable option for CCA timber disposal.’ Download the report.

Here are some facts on what exactly CCA treated timber is, and why internationally, jurisdictions have been placed on its use.

What is CCA treated timber?The most commonly treated timber is CCA treated, or Chromate Copper Arsenate. The chemical mixture is injected into the wood under pressure, ensuring that the wood is saturated with the chemicals.

What are the possible health effects from exposure to it? According to the United States’ EPA’s Incident Data System, exposure to treated timber can result in ‘itching, burning, rashes, neurological symptoms, and breathing problems after handling lumber; damage to nerves in feet and legs from CCA sawdust and fumes from construction; chronic rash; eye swelling from dust; headache, nausea, shakiness, and thirst from cutting timber; rashes on arms from dust; nausea and headache from drilling timber’. These side effects are linked to the exposure to high arsenic levels. Internationally, the concern for the health implications has led to the United States, Canada and the European Union banning the use of CCA-treated wood in residential and recreational settings.

Why is their concern for the environment? Currently in New Zealand, the most common disposal for CCA treated timber is straight to landfill. The concern for the environment comes from the issues of chemicals leaching from landfill into the soil. For Christchurch, CCA treated timber is to be placed in kerbside red wheelie bins – for  landfill dumping.

With such prolific use of treated radiata pine within New Zealand, and landfill being the most common disposal of treated timber within New Zealand, it seems worth taking a look at international responses and the reasoning for so many countries placing jurisdictions on the use of treated timber and also to find a solution to the large amount of treated timber that goes to our landfills and affects our ecosytems and human health.

Is there a solution out there that could remove the CCA from the timber so it can be reused or a solution for recycling the timber in some way? Would the Extended Producer Responsibility programme describe in Simon Love’s research work for New Zealand. What could we do? What do we need to do to solve this waste stream issue?

We would love to know. Treated Timber is one of SIFT’s key waste streams to be solved. As such we are inviting expressions of interest to help solve this problem from anyone who thinks the have an idea, the solution, or could help set up a Producer Responsibility Program.

Source: Re-Nest

Here are some great links we have found over the past week on sustainability, waste and plastic:

• Sustainability vs. Renewability – A Love Affair
• Plastic fantastic? A great read that will give you the true long-term effects of the world’s obsession with plastic in every-day life.
• Seven basics to help you maintain sustainability
• Your chance to be part of something BIG that will educate, inspire and encourage recycling!
• Proving that reusing and recycling can be fantastically stylish: the chair made from recycled refrigerators
• DIY recycled plastic bag pendant light from Re-Nest

Have a great waste free weekend.

Great photo from EcoCentral (formerly CCC2) showing one of the sites where all of the demoltion waste from the earthquake(s) is being sorted by Transpacific Industries Ltd.

Source: EcoCentral

A new petition has come through to SIFT from one of our new projects (and through my connections with the Lincoln Envirotown Trust) to make our voice heard to the government that we want to rebuild Christchurch sustainably. This is a great idea and I only hope that lots of people sign it (like all those who signed the pledge and more!) and that the town leaders, government, city planners and designers all listen.

This is a fantastic opportunity to rebuild Christchurch for a future whereby the buildings and citizens of the city have a positive environmental impact at all levels of sustainability (and are ready for the impacts of climate change).

After finding that there is currently no leadership on this issue Lou Warren (from over the hill in Diamond Harbour) started the petition on change.org.

You can sign the petition here and we encourage as many Cantabrians and New Zealanders alike to sign it and let our voice be heard (now’s our chance): “We, the people of Canterbury, the people of New Zealand and our friends internationally, want you to deliver a well-planned, environmentally sustainable re-build of Christchurch.”

Thanks to Lou for setting this up and we look forward to seeing how many people sign, who listens and the plans for our lovely city.

If you know of someone worthy of the title of Environmental Champion then consider entering them or the project into the 2011 Green Ribbon Awards through the Ministry for the Environment. There are twelve catergories and entries must be received by 5pm Friday the 15th of April.

The categories are:

• Protecting our biodiversity
• Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions
• Caring for our water
• Minimising our waste
• Improving our air quality
• Protecting our coasts and oceans
• Community action for the environment: Young People
• Community aciton for the environment: Volunteers and Not-for-Profit organisations
• Environment in the media
• Small businesses making a difference
• Environmentally responsible large businesses
• Central and local government stepping up.

Press Release

Green Ribbon Awards Nomination form